Does Restricting Hand Gestures Impair Mathematical Reasoning?

• In Event: Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: Students' Learning Strategies and Interventions

Abstract

Gestures are associated with powerful forms of mathematical understanding. However, determining the causative role of gestures in promoting mathematical reasoning has been more elusive. In the present study, we inhibit undergraduate students’ gestures by restraining their hands, and examine how this impacts their problem-solving when presented with geometric conjectures to prove. We find preventing students from gesturing is significantly detrimental for students with high spatial skills, but is significantly beneficial for students with low spatial skills. Students with high spatial skills may utilize gestural feedback differently, enacting their detailed and accurate spatial mental images to support or communicate their reasoning. Students with low spatial skills could potentially be disrupted by enacting poorly-formulated spatial mental images via gesture.

Authors

• Candace A. Walkington, Southern Methodist University

• Dawn Marie Woods, Southern Methodist University

• Geoffrey Ngetich Chelule, Southern Methodist University

• Mitchell J. Nathan, University of Wisconsin - Madison